Before you listen to all the prophecies about this year…
Before you listen to all the prophecies about how it is the year of your breakthrough, the year of favour, or that a great revival is coming, or that it is the year of harvest, or what the Jewish calendar purports to say, or that God is doing a new thing, or that the political landscape is going to look like the very thing you want it to look like, or that God is going to dash the heads of His enemies against a sharp rock, or that he is going to make some nation great (which coincidentally happens to be the nationality of said prophet), or that it is the year of your blessing/abundance/destiny/anointing/vision, remember: the Father has invited you into His rest.
Before anything else comes, sit with Him.
Be with Him.
The surest prophecy ever is that He will be there.
I have been reflecting on the invitation to know the heart of God in the words of Christ:
“Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, My heart is meek and lowly.”
I'm not convinced God says half the stuff we think He says. Many of the prophetic words we hear today sound nothing like the Christ of the Holy Scriptures. I think if Christ had said the aforementioned words today He would have said something like this to the conservative, liberal, independent (to the human):
You have searched for me in your fears and haven't found me...
You have searched for me in your social justice and you haven't found me...
You have searched for be in your redefinition of love and acceptance and you haven't found me...
You have searched for be in your war against abortion and you haven't found me...
You have searched for me in your defence of traditional morals and you haven't found me...
You have searched for me in your defence of your rights and haven't found me...
You have searched for me in your quest for equality and you haven't found me...
You have searched for me in your political candidates and you haven't found me...
Come To Me
Come to me in your weariness and lack...
Come to me all you who have tried to find meaning in your quest for justice, for peace, for love, for acceptance...
Come to me all you who have tried to find meaning in the relationships you surround yourself with...
Come to me you who cling desperately to your ideologies...
Come to me all you who surround yourself with expensive things...
Come to me all you who never have enough...
Come to me all you who compare yourself to others...
Come to me all you who wake up to self-hatred in the morning...
Come to me all you who are driven to success because you just wanted a dad to say, "Well done"...
Come to me all you who fear your life will never measure up to the immeasurable standard...
Come to me all you who are weary from fighting, lay down your stones, lay down the weaponizing of words, lay down your division born of adherence to ideologies, lay down your desperate need to be justified, lay down your struggle with your fellow image-bearers.
Come to me and I will be your resting place. I will be your reprieve, I will be your hiding place. Come to me and take up my love, come to me take up peace within your heart, come to me and take up my words of mercy, come to me and take upon yourself my tenderness, come to me and take upon yourself my compassion. Lay down your hateful thoughts, lay down your offence, lay down your bitterness. Lay down your warfare with the world, may your everlasting battle be to bring your heart to me. Come to me and you will find the rest you so desperately long for.
I am your resting place. I am your solitude. I am the quieting of your inner turmoil. I am your love for your fellow man. I am your reprieve from the world. I am your defence against the onslaught of the devil. I am your brother. I am your father. I am your friend. I am your lover. Come to me and I will give you my heart. Come to me.